We were delighted to hear that our Director of Amazon Prime Air, Lauren Kisser, was awarded the everywoman in Retail Ambassador of the Year award last night. Judges named Lauren the Retail Ambassador of the Year for her dedication to addressing the gender gap in retail and technology.

“I was in complete shock when they called my name,” said Lauren. “I’ve worked at Amazon for over a decade on things I never would have imagined when I first started out in my career. It’s really exciting and an honour to be recognised for something I'm so passionate about - inspiring and building women leaders at Amazon. None of it could have been achieved without the incredible people I've worked with and my amazing support system of three at home – my husband and two children.”

Established in 1999, everywoman is a leading organisation in the advancement of women in business, with a presence in over 100 countries and a successful active network of over 20,000 members. The organisation select Retail Ambassadors who possess the qualities, attitude, hard work ethic and commitment to supporting other women that makes them a credit to the industry and the organisations they work for. In their own words, Retail Ambassadors are “the women who have been and are reinventing retail in this digital age as well as inspiring success in others.”

Lauren is Director of Operations for Amazon Prime Air - a delivery system designed to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using unmanned aerial vehicles, also called drones. Based at Amazon’s Development Centre in Cambridge, Lauren leads a global team of world‐renowned roboticists, scientists, and aeronautical engineers.

Beyond her day-to-day role, Lauren recognises the need to address the gender gap in retail and technology. She had led outreach efforts to inspire girls to continue studying STEM subjects at school by inviting them to Amazon’s drone lab in Cambridge and regularly visits schools as a Prime Air STEM Ambassador. She is also the executive sponsor of the Diversity Working Group at Amazon’s Development Centre in Cambridge, which aims to create and foster a diverse workplace, both rewarding for women and men and setting a benchmark for other Amazon sites.

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